A feral cat is filmed removing a Streaked Shearwater chick from its burrow

Tatsuya Shiozaki (Graduate School of Environmental Studies, Nagoya University, Japan) and colleagues have published in Japanese in the Japanese Journal of Ornithology on a feral cat Felis catus entering the metre-long burrow of a Streaked Shearwater Calonectris leucomelas and removing the chick.  The article also describes egg predation by a Large-billed Crow Corvus macrorhynchos and chick predation by a Japanese Rat Snake Elaphe climacophora.

Feral cats prey upon shearwater chicks, photograph by Jerome Legrand

Click here to view the Infrared video camera film from August 2012 of the predation event. 

Reference:

Shiozaki, T., Shirai, M., Osugi, M., Yamamoto, M. & Yoda, M.. 2014.  Predation by feral cat on Streaked Shearwater chicks on Awashima.  Japanese Journal of Ornithology 63: 75-78 [in Japanese].

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 18 October 2015

The Agreement on the
Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels

ACAP is a multilateral agreement which seeks to conserve listed albatrosses, petrels and shearwaters by coordinating international activity to mitigate known threats to their populations.

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